Ascents as Tick by Brendan Coulter

There happened to be a party on Clockwork Orage when we rocked up, so did the first pitch of this to kill the time.

Despite the description, the “bolted belay” of the adjacent route is actually 2 carrots… so lowered Aidan and then down-led the pitch. Cleaned up an old stuck sling in the process too, which literally pulled apart in my hands.

Epic route, epic day! Keen to get back on it (when I’m a little stronger)

Decided to rap the route with a single rope and tag line, for a single day mission, stashing snacks and water bottles at belays.

First rap (to top of golden corner went smoothly). From the golden corner we learned a lesson - when pulling a biner-block abseil, if the anchor twists the rope, it’s impossible to pull.

We spent ages pulling as hard as we could, before realizing the futility. Cue lead-solo French-free shenanigans up the first few bolts to retrieve the rope.

Next rap down the 23+24 went smoothly because there were double biners left on the hangers.

Down the “balls in a juicer”, we learned (the hard way) that it was our single biners on each hanger causing the twisting. Not keen to repeat our previous efforts, and the fact that it was now after midday - we decided that we’d go from here.

I “jugged” (on a prussik and grigri) back the whole pitch, belayed Seth up, then lowered and had a crack at it myself. The climbing, surprisingly, went smoothly.

26 - nails! toprope flash by the skin of my teeth. Not the nicest warmup, but a great intro to conglomerate slabs.

23 - Seth took the lead so I could rest my fingers. As I unclip the last bolt, eye-to-eye with the belay, I say the dumbest thing I could “probably shouldn’t fall here”, which was the precursor to a rock snapping, and me swinging straight under the belay.

24 - Onsight. Very tricky to figure out. You don’t notice the runout because you’re too focused on climbing.

25 - toprope flash - lead by Seth. Epic move out for the crux, I’m stoked I got it given the pack and how cooked I was.

20, 20 - linked the last 2. Was excited for the variety of a chimney. Decided I’d had enough variety on the dripping, mossy hand traverse

Rachael’s lead, she nailed it

5 stars for the handcrack! Absolutely incredible! Take 2 stars for the questionable rock up top, and it’s still worth doing. Maybe a better option than Rain of Terror (more direct to jihad if you step right at the top out), but you’d need an extra .75-2.

Where’s the crag “yo-yo” tick style? Took the guide’s recommended light rack, and forgot the #3, then got lost and missed Rain of Terror. 2/3rd of the way up, with only 3 pieces in, and no more gear that would fit, I decided the only safe approach is to retrieve the two pieces under me. Does mean I got to do the route twice, which is awesome

Got to the base of P2, stepped around the corner and almost got blown off the wall! Turns out the wind forecast underestimated it a little. Decided the summit wasn’t worth it, and turned around.

Left the carpark at 7am, and got back at 7:30pm.

There’s a fixed line in the access gully (waterfall right now), but it’s a little damaged where it rubs the rock, so trust at your own risk, and bring your own rope too

Wanted to see what a 27 on granite felt like. Spoiler alert: HARD!

Couldn’t figure out the last bolt, but got the rest. Also gave me an excuse to run another lap of Lift Ladies

Made an adventure out of this thing! Ended up being 3 pitches of awesome (although not the climb) Rapped down from above Wicked Solitaire and walked across (terrible idea), scrambled up and squeezed through a chimney to get to the tree (p1).

Did the corner as intended, but was not keen for the mossy, wet, and crumbly traverse. Decided that the finger crack going up and left looked WAY more fun. Doubt it’s a FA (it’s just so obvious), but was so full of loose and crumbly rock it’s obviously not been touched for many many years. 3 stars (probably about 22, but hard to tell given the loose rock and wetness) - out left and belayed on the ledge.

Finished up the mossy crack, which was harder than it looked, but really topped off the adventure

Nice easy corner to escape for the day.

Rachael quickly regretted volunteering to lead, but pushed through the fear wonderfully. First climb at Buffalo, and a great warmup.

Fortunately there's tons of face holds to save offwidthing too hard!

I'm impressed I'd never gotten on this one before. Fun 3d climbing

Got Raechelle to lead another trad route

The hardest 21 at frog! The sun had risen, and after this I thought for sure our attempt at 20 20s was over. There's no way we'd have enough energy after being blasted by this monster!

Honestly, I barely even remember doing this one! Was Josiah's lead, and I was still recovering from Juggernaut

Not as bad/runout as the description suggests. I wouldn't suggest placing gear behind the boot, but it's pretty bomber the rest of the way, and decent climbing.

What a way to finish up the 20 20s! Topped out at 8:45pm

"Hardest 20 if you can't offwidth OR face-climb around the offwidth"

At climb #14, Josiah Hess thought it'd be fun to take the grunty, soul destroying chimney/offwidth rather than the face-climbing variant. It almost broke me!

Turns out this thing goes quite well on a single rack of offset nuts

One last lap of the day, followed ninja up. Did the old-school way too!

It started sprinkling as I was racking up, but being the badass I am, I decide to do it anyway! Pro-tip: I’m not a badass, and granite friction slab is not fun when wet! The sprinkle turned into a downpour, and I bailed from the top of pitch 1. We came back the next day for the tick 😂

Engaging!

Broke off the rest jug before the first bolt... oops!

Top-roped to scout it out. Turns out Josiah Hess is far better at finding pro than I am, and saved this face from unnecessary bolts

No anchor on top of the pillar, best to climb down the other side. Awesome, airy position

Being a gymnast would help here!

Didn't have enough gear to safely lead it, so had to resort to a top-rope burn. Still super fun climbing

Burn on top-rope since we already had is set for DMEG

Seconding as a warmup for the day